Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said prior to Pistole’s testimony that she believed TSA was in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation, because people would be hopping mad at TSA if Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Adbulmutallab had succeeded. She went on to say the new advanced imaging technology–which has caused uproar because of its leave-no-secrets imaging and potential health risks–is more of a blessing than a curse.

“I’m wildly excited that I can walk through a machine instead of getting my dose of love pats,” Sen. McCaskill said.

Both senators and Pistole acknowledged the public concern that has made mini-celebrities out of some passengers who have opposed the new imaging scans and enhanced pat-downs. Pistole, a former FBI agent, went so far as to say he submitted himself to the pat-downs and found them to be “more invasive than what I was used to.”

Senator George LeMieux of Florida agreed they were invasive, saying they had gone too far and that he “wouldn’t want (his) wife to go through these pat-downs.” He even suggested looking more at the Israeli model of behavioral profiling in airport screenings, which has been largely successful but also criticized as racist.

The ever morphing metaphor has a car driven into a ditch by Republicans, the President and Democrats trying to push it out, and Republicans either sitting in the back seat, standing around sipping Slurpees, fanning themselves or kicking dirt in Mr. Obama’s face. Asked about the danger of this campaign message sounding like a broken record, Gibbs replied that “the record of the last eight years was pretty broken.” “We don’t want to walk away from that. That’s what got us into this mess…I think the president will continue to talk about it,” he said.

[Reason.com] And the Award for Most Sanctimonious Non-Apology of the Week Goes To…

Rachel Maddow.

Last night, Maddow pulled some truly Rhodes Scholarship-worthy rhetorical gymnastics in both apologizing for and doubling down on her accusation that former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) had some kind of prior knowledge of the Oklahoma City bombing. Maddow conceded that she was guilty of a “misstatement” and an “editing error” in accusing the one-term U.S. congressman of being at least partly responsible for the deaths of 168 fellow human beings. But she then made light of her colossally offensive “misstatement” by arguing that her main contention still stands: The important thing, she claimed, isn’t that she said something mindbogglingly slanderous, it’s that she was justified in doing so.

The real vomit-all-over-your-keyboard moment comes at roughly the 2-minute mark, where Maddow sarcastically frames her apology as a chance to congratulate herself on bringing the specter of militant right-wing politics to the public’s attention. “For all the conservative bloggers out there who are extremely angry at me for making that mistake” she said, “thank you. Thank you for signaling such enthusiasm for discussing guys like Steve Stockman, and for getting all the details right. If the country talked a lot more about the Steve Stockmans of the world and anti-government extremism and what the experience of having anti-government extremists in Congress was like for this country the last time we tried it, I think that would be good for us in this country, particularly before this round of elections.”

MICHELLE: We got this man in office. I think we’re all proud of Barack and his accomplishments. Everybody I know in our communities are praying for us, every day. It means all the world to us to know that there are prayer circles out there and people who are keeping the spirits clean around us. This election is gonna make a statement about whether, you know, Barack’s power and support is as deep. There are people who are questioning whether his support is as deep, you know? They want to make out like, well, this is just a one-time thing.

RUSH: Keep the spirits clean around us, pray to keep the spirits clean around us. They’re jumping all over Christine O’Donnell for supposedly dabbling in witchcraft. There’s something about Obama and clean. You remember Joe Bite Me said, (paraphrasing) “You got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Bite Me says that. Now Michelle says, “It means all the world to us to know that there are prayer circles out there and people who are keeping the spirits clean around us.” Now, help me here, folks. This is new to me. I’m not versed in the hygiene of spirits. I had no idea it was an issue for prayer. I mean, it’s always dangerous to start going down this road, but I’m unfamiliar with Christian spirits. My Bible doesn’t make reference to Harry Potter or Halloween. I’m confused. I mean the fact is I guess I’m going to have to get caught up on this whole concept of identifying individual spirits and then get some tutoring on how to determine if my particular circle of spirits has access to washrooms and bathrooms and dental care, earwax. So what is this? The hygiene, keep the spirits clean.

[Chorus]

A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial

Tuesday afternoon, Jake Tapper interviewed Bruce Josten, the Executive Vice President for government affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce, about the White House/ Chamber conflict. The Chamber refuses to release its donors list, which the Obama administration is demanding, using serial fabulist Lee Fang’s ThinkProgress report as their guide. The charge is that the Chamber has been receiving foreign money for its political ads.